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Wednesday, January 15, 2014

#872: Paul LePage

Paul LePage is the Republican governor of Maine since 2011,
and quite clearly not entirely well hinged. He is, perhaps, most famous for a
somewhat shady past and his behavior toward journalists who attempt to inquire
into some of the more legally questionable parts of his past,
and for his attempts to remove the ban on Bisphenol A,
dismissing its health risks by claiming, without support, that there “hasn’t
been any science that identifies that there is a problem,” and adding: “The
only thing that I've heard is if you take a plastic bottle and put it in the
microwave and you heat it up, it gives off a chemical similar to estrogen. So
the worst case is some women may have little beards ... and we don't want
that.” Of course, dismissals of e.g. environmental concerns on the grounds of
not having the faintest clue about what he is talking about are staple fare for
LePage. Blasting global warming as a “scam,” LePage has promised to lay waste
to the state's environmental regulations in general – though the fact that he
made a fool of himself nationally in the Bisphenol A case has made him quiet
down a little.

The clincher with respect to inclusion criteria, however, is
– as one would expect from someone like Le Page – his religious nuttery and attempts to get religion into education. He is, for instance, in favor of
teaching creationism in public schools, and has attempted to allow public funds
to go to religious schools – though the latter proposal was defeated in the
Legislature due to its rather obvious Constitutional problems.

At least he seems to view himself as committed to the cause
of anti-racism. In that respect he has voiced grave (and incoherent and loud)
concerns about the delusion contention that Obama hates white people.

Diagnosis: Another batshit fundie denialist who has been
given a position of power. Sad, scary, and completely unsurprising.